


Into The Woods

by Kidfish



Category: Original Work
Genre: Adelaide is too gay to function, Angst with a Happy Ending, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/F, Fantasy, Fordetk being an asshole, Kievara is a badass, Original Femslash, Original Universe, Useless Lesbians
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-23
Updated: 2016-11-08
Packaged: 2018-08-24 06:55:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8361952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kidfish/pseuds/Kidfish
Summary: Although haunted by dreams of her mother's mysterious death, Adelaide, the princess of her kingdom lives a relatively good life within the walls of the castle. The dreams are annoyingly consistent until one day they introduce a girl that Addie has never seen before. Out hunting in the woods one day, Addie is ambushed by a servant of the neighboring kingdom, Narazlif. The encounter lives Addie bewildered and confused but her father allows her no time to dwell on her feelings as he introduces his new military general to her. With that news, comes the invitation to a regency ball for the prince of Narazlif. Adelaide will have to face the truth as well as her fears in this suspenseful tale all while dealing with her complicated feelings.





	1. Dreams of Black and White

The thundering of feet echoed in her ears, trees rushed past her, blurring into a slew of greens and browns as she ran. Faster and faster, she could feel her chest seizing up, her breaths getting shorter, more shallow. She had been running for nearly a quarter of an hour now; it was getting harder to keep running but Adelaide knew she could not be captured for, surely, something terrible would happen to her if she were.

Running through the forest had not been easy, not because it was unfamiliar to her, she knew this area well, but because she had to duck into the underbrush to escape the men who were tracking her. They would not dare lead their horses through the spiny thornwood bushes. Adelaide just hoped that they did not have dogs. At least with horses, she could fit in the underbrush and hide, with dogs however; there was no way she could hide or outrun them, especially when they would know her scent.

Now, moving past the blossoming branches, Adelaide felt the sting of a thorn graze her cheek. She winced but did not look back; she had to keep moving. Adelaide did not know of her pursuers or why the were following her, just that an unmistakable buzz of fear set in her chest whenever she entertained the thought of being caught.

Adelaide took in her surroundings. The wood had been quiet for some time now, unnervingly so. She just had not noticed since the wind would blow past her ears when she was running. The only noise disturbing the peace was the occasional sparrow song. She took a chance and slowed down to a slight jog and then down to a walk, taking in the fresh summer air. Her boots made no sound against the soft grasses beneath her. Her heart was still racing and her breaths came in short bursts. Fumbling at the pouch attached to her hip, Adelaide reached down for a drink. The water skin, three-quarters full, was filled with lukewarm water but it was all she had. She raised the pouch greedily to her lips; running had made her throat parched. The water flowed smoothly over her cracked lips and down her throat, within moments, the water had been drained from its container. 

Her heartbeat had finally seemed to right itself as she walked through the forest. Honeysuckle and lavender bushes grew on both sides of her path and Adelaide breathed in their sweet scent, nostalgic for the smell that had accompanied her childhood. It reminded her of better days where her mother and father had both been alive and they were all happy. It had been there as her mother guided her as she took her first steps on chubby legs, stumbling over the cobblestones in the courtyard. Honeysuckle bushes had bloomed in meadow where her father had taught her how to shoot a bow and arrow. The blossoms had swirled around her in the early spring breeze tickling her skin, daring her to break her stance. Lavender was the flavor of tea that her grandfather used to bring her when she layed in her room and read the book of old fairy tales that he had given to her as a young girl. She could even smell the flowers as she was riding her horse, Saerrow, and the wind was whipping the curls off of her face as she rode through the Western Wood.

The tranquility of the forest was interrupted by a shrill piercing shriek. It caused Adelaide to jump and her heart started to beat dangerously fast. She turned around but no person was there. The shriek sounded again and it took her a few minutes to locate the source of cacophony; a crow sat perched atop a branch a mere twenty steps behind her.

Adelaide felt incredibly foolish for letting a bird call frighten her. She had grown up in these woods, spent hours exploring and discovering every nook and cranny of the forest. Perhaps it was just a stray hare or fox moving through the brush. Still, she reached for her bow, her hand resting comfortably on the smooth, familiar wood, its weight reassuring her.

Suddenly an arrow flew past her, flying so close that Adelaide could feel it rustle her hair. She tensed, feeling a shiver crawl down her back like someone was tapping at the bones near the base of her spine. At first she began to feel rather than hear the raucous cries of men and hooves pounding into the earth but eventually she could barely make out their dissonant yells. She knew what was coming and would have to move quickly if she did not want to be a part of it. 

Yet Adelaide was rooted to the spot. Her brain screamed for her to move, to run, for awful things would surely happen to her if they caught her, but her feet protested, staying exactly where they were.

A flash of movement caught Adelaide’s attention. She turned to face a girl around her years. She was slightly taller than Adelaide and dressed in traditional hunting attire. However it looked like it did not seem to quite fit her; her cream colored tunic stretched tight around her muscular arms and it was bagged around her waist. Her brown harem pants were tucked into scruffed riding boots. A bottle green cloak was wrapped around her even though the air was warm enough to not need it. The girl carried herself with a sense of dignity that made her seem taller than she was. With fierce blue eyes and dark brown hair pulled away from her face, she was beautiful in a regal sort of way, like she was used to wielding power and she knew how to use it. She regarded Adelaide with apprehension, her eyes cautious and calculating. For a split second, Adelaide did not know if the girl was going to yell at her or stab her. Adelaide noticed the knife strapped to the girl’s waist, her gaze lingering on her hips. When she looked up again, the girl was already studying her, and it made Adelaide’s cheeks flush. 

Adelaide spoke in her native tongue without thinking. When the girl did not answer, she realized that this girl must not be from her father’s kingdom. She knew that the neighboring kingdom, Nazalif, had a language of their own, so it was a strong possibility that the girl lived there. So Adelaide repeated her question, only this time in a language she hoped they could both understand. “Do you need any help? Are you lost?”

The girl continued to simply stare at Adelaide, making her feel like she was being scrutinized. The princess was not used to this strange girl openly assessing her features without saying her mind like she was a common garden mouse. It formed an uncomfortable knot in her stomach and she squirmed.

“If you don’t need me, I’ll be going then.” Adelaide turned to leave, desperate to get away from this siren of a girl in front of her, but a cold hand touched the crook of her arm. 

“Look, I don’t know what you want from-,” Adelaide gasped. No more was the huntress, but a beautiful woman in front of her. Her mother. She looked exactly as Adelaide remembered her from childhood memories. The same curly brown hair pulled back into a knot at the base of her neck, the same kind eyes that had shown with love; however, now they were dark and cold.

“Mama?” Adelaide heard her voice, though barely a whisper, small and childlike. Who had this women become? Surely, this was not her mother, who had died years ago.

Yet the clammy hand resting on arm was proof that, to some extent, her mother was existing in front of her. Adelaide felt the stark contrast of temperature between the hand on her arm and the warm air around her and it made her skin crawl. Adelaide took a step back, stumbling over a tree root

Her mother gazed at Adelaide, her eyes blank and unseeing, When she was alive, her mother had always cared for her and her father with nothing less than love. Seeing the shell of the woman she once knew, unnerved Adelaide.

Still, her mother was silent in front of her. Adelaide wondered if her mother’s spirit could speak, and what she would say. She longed to hear her mother’s voice again, for her mother to sing her to sleep one, for her to tell her that she loved her one last time. After all, the last time that had happened was just over ten years ago. But her mother stayed silent. The absence of her mother’s voice pressed on Adelaide’s chest and she felt as if she was drowning in the silence.

“Mama,” she tried again, but it was to no avail. Adelaide did not realize she was crying until she brought a hand up to her cheek and felt a wetness around her eyes. Soon, hot tears were freely falling down her cheeks, leaving behind a burning trail of shame. 

As if the sky was mourning the loss of her mother’s spirit as much as she was, it rumbled above her like a giant beating drum. The rolling clouds blocked out the sun, erasing the long shadows the trees cast on the ground. The wind started to pick up, whistling through the trees, tangling Adelaide’s hair across her face, and bringing a chill that seemed to settle in her bones. 

Once again, she heard the pounding of hooves of in the distance. Faintly at first, but slowly building into a crescendo until the ground was shivering under her feet. Adelaide cursed. What had she been thinking, staying in one spot for so long? She should have known the men would have caught up to her by now, distracted by her mother, she was basically handing herself over to these men. 

She needed to move away from this part of the forest as fast as possible. Adelaide turned to start running again, but before she had taken even a few steps, arrows started to fly past her. She darted out of the clearing to hide behind a magnificent oak tree. Its trunk spanned twice the the width of her body, providing adequate protection from any stray arrows. Adelaide ran her fingers over the rough bark, studying the tree’s surface. A beetle skittered across the wood towards her hand. A trail of ants made their way up the tree above her her head. She entertained the beetle, nudging it with her finger and making it change directions every so often before pulling her hand away.

Arrows were still being shot at her, but Adelaide still could not see where they were coming from. An arrow lodged itself into the ground near her feet. Squatting down to avoid being struck, Adelaide gripped the shaft of the arrow and pulled it out the ground. She did not recognize the royal insignia stamped on it which troubled her greatly: A double headed snake with forked tongues flicked out rested above two crossed swords.

She took her bow, which was slung across her back and notched the arrow on it. With her back pressed against the trunk and her bow ready, she listened closely for anything that would help her aim but she could not discern any specific voice.

“Addie,” a voice whispered. Adelaide’s heart wrenched when she saw her mother sprawled out the ground awkwardly, crimson blood pooling around her midsection. An arrow had pierced the small of her back, just like how she died before, Adelaide thought. She forced her eyes away from her mother but it was too late; the memories were already rushing back to her.


	2. An Arrow to the Heart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's just me staring into a computer so I apologize for any spelling/grammatical errors. Enjoy!

Adelaide remembered the day vividly, as if it was the previous day. She had been nine when it had happened. She was running through the courtyard with the servants’ children, laughing and seeing who she could chase the longest. So far the only girls she could not catch were Liliana and Faeliti. She had rounded up the other children to gang up the two girls. 

The shuffling of the children’s feet across the cobblestones echoed loudly around the courtyard. She weaved through maidservants and gardeners, ignoring their good-natured questions; she was on a mission to catch at least one of the girls before it was time to go in for her midday meal.

She had decided to go after Liliana first as she was a touch slower than Faelti. Adelaide had spotted her on the other side of courtyard, hiding behind a stone column. Liliana was turned so she faced away from Adelaide and Adelaide tried to sneak up on her as quietly as possible. She was face to face with Liliana before the first girl had turned around. Smiles broke out on both of the girl’s faces when they realized that Adelaide had found her.

Adelaide had ran as fast as she could back to where her mother was sitting, bursting to tell her the good news. When she got there however, something had been wrong. Her mother’s eyes had glazed over and her breaths were shallow. The work dress that she had been sewing had fallen off her lap and was now in a crumpled lump on the ground. Adelaide remembered asking her mother what was wrong but the only response she got were raspy gasps of air. Blood had blossomed across her mother’s dress, darkest where the only evidence of a knife was its hilt stuck into her back. 

That knife. Adelaide shuddered at just the thought of it. She had always preferred bows and arrows to knives, but after her mother’s death, Adelaide grew to loathe knives and people who used them. Knives were too merciless, too mindless, too destructive. With bows, the person using it had to have some knowledge of guiding it, needed to have a calculated precision to make the arrow fly where they wanted it to. Knives were made for drawing out the pain, for torturing the person who was stabbed; however, arrows were made to be efficient and less painful. Adelaide closed her eyes and tried not to remember how the knife had looked in her mother, tried not to remember how it seemed to suck the life out of her mother the longer Adelaide had stood there.

With an enormous amount of effort, Adelaide pulled herself out of the memory. Her mother was still there and still needed her help. The only problem was that Adelaide did not know how to rescue her without being impaled by an arrow.

“I can help,” a raspy voice said behind her. Adelaide turned around to come face-to-face with the mystery girl from before. She was much closer to Adelaide’s face than she remembered. A nervous swoop went through her stomach.

“Oh, so you can speak now,” it came out a little more harsh than she meant but it was better than showing weakness. Adelaide could not afford to let this girl know how much she affected her.

“Well from what I’ve seen, you’re in no position to not accept my help,” the huntress snapped back.”

Adelaide opened her mouth to argue but then closed it again. As annoying as she was, this girl was right. Who was she anyway? Adelaide did not recognize her from the castle or even her kingdom. The girl’s features seemed a little harder: hair a little darker, eyes a little brighter. Her eyes were mesmerizing. It wasn’t just the deep blue color they had but the way the seemed to follow Adelaide’s every move. It reminded her of wolf, curious but calculating, studying Adelaide like the girl didn’t know if she should consider her prey or not. Adelaide definitely did not want to stay around long enough to find out. Moreover, now that they were so close, Adelaide noticed that the girl was slightly taller than her. Not by much, but enough to make her feel self-conscious. That combined with the way the girl regarded her, Adelaide practically felt insignificant.

All this time the huntress had been holding her gaze, never taking her eyes off of Adelaide’s face. It was exciting, intimidating, and uncomfortable all at once; Adelaide was terrified. She looked away, not wanting this girl to see her cheeks reddening.

“Shall we save my mother then?” Adelaide had almost completely for about her mother; she had never accounted for being so distracted by the presence of this girl. A lump of guilt immediately formed in her throat.

“I suppose we should, “ the girl answered. Adelaide peaked out from the safety of the tree that they were hiding behind. Her mother, now with a small pool of blood around her, was still on the ground. Arrows surrounded her, sticking out of the ground like teeth from a giant monster. And Adelaide’s mother was right in the middle of its maw.

Adelaide reached for her quiver that rested on her back. Made from hog leather that was from two kingdoms over, it had been a gift from her grandfather on her 13th birthday. Intricate designs covered the surface and it could easily hold up to twenty arrows. A leather strap attached to the top quiver and two attached at the bottom, one went over her shoulder and the other two snaked up her ribs on her opposite side to connect and sit comfortably on her chest. If needed, Adelaide could unhook either of the bottom straps for quick removal. It was her most prized possession and she never went into the forest without it.

“You are confident that you are able to successfully distract the men with your arrows?” The girl had an oddly formal way of speaking; the words flowed off of her tongue in a smooth lilt like a continuous river.

“I think so. I have a pretty good idea of where they are based on the direction of where their arrows are coming.” This was true but Adelaide was not as confident as she wanted to be. She only had one chance, if she did not hit her target then it would be over. Their cover would be gone and soon they would be captured. And her mother would die. Again.

“That is reassuring,” the girl mumbled under her breath. Annoyed, Adelaide glared at her but she was not looking. Adelaide’s eyes fell to the knife strapped to her hip. It looked like a standard hunting knife contained within its scabbard; however, it looked like there was some sort of emblem on the scabbard. It looked vaguely like a snake but Adelaide was too far away to be sure. 

Adelaide pulled an arrow out from her quiver and notched it in her bow. Most of the arrows had been coming from the left of the tree that they were hiding behind. She guessed that the men were less than 500 steps away from their location. That would mean if she pulled back far enough and positioned her bow just right….

A faint yell sounded in the distance followed by a profane string of curses. Adelaide estimated that they had about five minutes before the men would come for her, and more importantly, her mother. She signaled to the girl to move from their hiding place. They needed to move quickly for this work. 

When they got to Adelaide’s mother, she was making small whimpering sounds. The pool of blood had gotten significantly larger, so much so that the huntress accidently stepped in it as she was preparing to pick the body up. Adelaide bent down. Up close, she could see that her mother’s face was turning gray and her breathing was shallow. If she looked hard enough, Adelaide could see a shadow of a heartbeat beating so faintly that it seemed to already have given up; her mother’s body seemed to blur around the edges, more incorporeal than not.

“I cannot seem to touch her,” Adelaide could hear the confusion in the girl’s voice. It made her already racing heart pound faster.

“Nonsense,” she said, but as she went to grab her mother’s arm, doubts began to cloud Adelaide’s mind. This girl, however strange and intimidated as she was, had only told nothing but the truth to her. Why would she start lying now?

Adelaide placed her hand on her mother’s arm or at least she thought she did. She tried again but the arm seemed to dematerialize in front of her eyes. Frantic, Adelaide tried again and again but to no avail. Her mind was playing tricks on her, that had to be it. She turned back to her mother but she barely had any time to look at her before she flickered and vanished. Adelaide let out a scream mixed with frustration and distraught. She searched the grass for any sign that her mother was there but there was nothing. Not even the grass was stained from the blood that had flowed from her back.

She looked around for the huntress for help, but again it appeared that she had vanished before Adelaide’s eyes. Instead, band of burly men had surrounded her. Adelaide cursed under her breath; they must’ve came when she was distracted by her mother and the girl vanishing. 

The leader dismounted off of his horse and walked up to Adelaide. She could not see his as it was shielded by a armoured facemask. He did not say anything as he unsheathed his sword. Adelaide was frozen in terror; she made no move to step away from the man. He raised his sword and Adelaide thought finally I get to see her again. The man brought his sword down and-

Adelaide woke up with a start. She was covered in a cold sweat and her chest seemed like it would explode. She swallowed, unable to get the taste of fear out of her mouth. The nightmares had been regular since her mother died, six years ago but Adelaide had never, would never, get used to them. It was always the same, the sudden consciousness, the cold sweat, the fear, the way she would never remember them in the morning.  
Adelaide lot the candle next to her bed and curled up tighter within the nest of blankets she slept with. Within minutes, she fell into another deep sleep. And again, when she would wake up in the morning, she wouldn't remember a thing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading and as always any comments or kudos will be greatly appreciated!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Any kudos or comments left will be greatly appreciated!!
> 
> Come talk to me at: iamkidfish.tumblr.com


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